Rockies, baseball honor Jackie by wearing No. 42 today

CHICAGO — Baseball rightly gets ripped for handling certain issues, from the steroids era to its reluctance to use instant replay. But the sport has gotten into a good place, as manager Clint Hurdle put it, in honoring legends.

Today, all major league players and umpires will wear No. 42 to honor Jackie Robinson breaking baseball’s color barrier.

“Without Jackie, none of this is possible,” said Dexter Fowler, the lone African-American on the Rockies’ 25-man active roster. “I have known about Jackie since I was little. We sat down as a family and watched his biography.”

Fowler has become friends with former Rockie LaTroy Hawkins, who has a strong connection to Robinson. Hawkins wore No. 42 for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic, saying “it was important to do.” The number is universally retired in the major leagues, save for those who were wearing it before it was taken out of circulation, like the Yankees’ Mariano Rivera.

“I talked to LaTroy about it, about him wearing 42, I said, ‘I see you representing,’^” Fowler said.

Rockies hitting instructor Don Baylor was encouraged to see a young player appreciate Robinson’s impact. But he said it’s hard to comprehend what the Hall of Famer endured.

“Players today have never put into a situation where they are not able to go into a hotel or a restaurant or dress with their teammates in the clubhouse,” said Baylor, who helped integrate a middle school as a seventh-grader in Austin, Texas. “You have to have such a great will to succeed in those conditions. I don’t know if I could have done it. He’s an inspiration.”

The human body regulates all it's functions through hormones. It has achieved a balance in ages of evolution. When we interfere in this balance with growth hormones or , side effects are bound to happen. Too bad many people apply the principle: no pain, no gain.

PalmGerald

The human body regulates all it's functions through hormones. It has achieved a balance in ages of evolution. When we interfere in this balance with growth hormones or , side effects are bound to happen. Too bad many people apply the principle: no pain, no gain.

Patrick, a third-generation Colorado native, is back for his second stint covering the Rockies. He first covered the team from 2005-2009, helping chronicle “Rocktober” in 2007 and also following the team’s playoff run in 2009.

Nick Groke has worked at The Denver Post since 1997, as a sports reporter, city reporter, entertainment writer and digital editor and producer, among other newsroom posts. He also writes regularly about boxing, soccer, MMA and NASCAR.